Read My Lips
Or was it just her imagination? It felt as if the eyes with which Bae Ye-ri had been casting her habitual smirk at Somi's friends had turned, somehow, cold the moment their gazes met.
Oh.
Somi's body stiffened before she could help it. By the time she blinked and looked again, Bae Ye-ri had already walked past.
That was strange.
She stole a glance at her friends just in case, but they all wore their usual expressions. She must have seen it wrong.
The moment Bae Ye-ri and Cha Woo-bin vanished into the Arts Building, the gossip that had briefly died out came rushing back to life.
"Honestly, though, just going by looks, the whole thing with Hwi-young sunbae was legendary."
"Agreed. With Woo-bin sunbae they just feel like, I don't know, a rich couple, but when she was with Kwon Hwi-young? That heart-stopping, butterflies-everywhere tension was unreal."
"I was sure they'd get back together."
At her friends' words, Somi's eyes dropped to the floor of the stairwell.
They really had looked good together….
Thinking back, they had been an incredibly well-matched couple. A restless, queasy feeling welled up out of nowhere, and Somi hurriedly shook her head to cut the thought off at the tail. There was no need to let words like that sway her and hurt her own heart for no reason.
And yet the head she had dropped refused to lift again.
"A movie?"
"Yes."
"What time is the movie?"
"11:40."
At the words Somi finally let out after her lips had fluttered uncertainly, Hwi-young's brow furrowed.
"That late? How are you planning to get home?"
"Um, I was thinking I'd take a taxi."
The theater was close enough to their place that the base fare would cover it. In broad daylight she would simply have walked, but given the hour, a taxi seemed the better choice.
Yet the moment the words left her mouth, the crease between Hwi-young's brows deepened further than before.
"A taxi?"
When he repeated it in a voice that clearly didn't approve, Somi bit her lip hard. Why did this feel so much like checking his mood before telling her dad she'd be staying out late with her friends?
As she twisted restlessly at the baseless tension, Hwi-young intertwined the fingers he'd been holding even deeper into hers. The gesture was so awkward that Somi swallowed dryly.
She'd already been swept up by his sudden appearance and dragged all the way here, which made staying calm that much harder.
It had been only moments ago — the instant she'd fired off a message saying she needed to talk to him.
The moment she sent it from a tucked-away corner of the corridor after parting with her friends, the "1" on his read receipt vanished. As if he'd been staring at his phone the entire time.
While she waited for the reply that was surely coming, gazing absently down the noisy corridor, someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder, tap tap.
She turned her head and Hwi-young's face was right there. He pressed a finger to his lips with a soft "shh," then snatched up Somi's hand. And the place she was led into was none other than this — the Prop Production Room.
To keep the freshly painted surfaces from fading or cracking in the sun, thick blackout curtains hung over the workshop windows even in the middle of the day. Thanks to them, the interior was as dark as midnight.
Hwi-young moved through the darkness without a trace of hesitation. Skillfully weaving between the scattered plywood and scaffolding frames, he drew Somi deep into the back of the room.
Before long, he perched loosely on the edge of a workbench littered with every kind of tool and abandoned takeout cups. Somi came to a natural stop in front of him. She had no choice — Hwi-young still hadn't let go of the hand he'd grabbed back in the corridor.
The smell of half-dried paint and dry sawdust kept swirling at the tip of her nose. Worse, his fingers were teasing endlessly at her fingertips, and it left Somi's head spinning.
Avoiding his eyes for no good reason, she murmured,
"…You're too close."
Everything was close. The theater to their home, and… this distance between them now.
"Close or not, it's still night."
Hwi-young rubbed his fingers over the tips of her nails.
"I don't want to send you off alone."
At the words that followed, Somi could only look up at him without speaking.
Suddenly her friends' chatter came circling back through her head.
When she was with Kwon Hwi-young, that heart-stopping, butterflies-everywhere tension was unreal.
I was sure they'd get back together.
Each line kept scraping at a corner of her heart.
Was that "unreal tension" they'd talked about exactly this kind of atmosphere? Or had it been even greater than this, when he was with Ye-ri sunbae?
What heart was behind this man holding her hand so tightly right now?
"Then how about this — should I come along too?"
"I'm sorry, where?"
"The movie."
Somi's eyes went round.
"You're saying you'd tag along to a movie I'm watching with my friends?"
Was that even possible?
No matter how she turned it over, it sounded absurd, and Somi tilted her head. At that, he swallowed a small chuckle — kook — and added,
"That would be a bit much, right? So I'll just quietly watch it separately from the back. I won't give away that I followed you, and I won't let on that I know you."
"Oh…."
He said he didn't want to send her off alone, yet even at the offer to come along, her heart didn't simply lift. Maybe it was because of the things she'd overheard earlier — Hwi-young's feelings remained utterly impossible to read. One moment he seemed to act special toward her alone, and the next she was gripped by a sudden fear: was she playing the fool, all by herself, to the Kwon Hwi-young of rumor, the one so kind to everyone that he drew misunderstandings?
"Hm? Som-ah."
He gave the hand he held a light tug, as if urging an answer. Her body slid forward, and his knee brushed softly against her leg. Before she knew it, her leg had slipped naturally between his. The entangled position they'd stumbled into was mortifying. At some point, his words stopped registering in her head at all — every nerve in her body seemed to be concentrated on the press of their legs together.
Besides, when had this even happened?
It had been a perfectly ordinary handhold as they crossed the corridor, and yet somehow their fingers had slipped into an interlaced clasp.
She didn't want to read into things, and yet she kept finding meaning in every one of his gestures despite herself.
Somi looked down at that hand and opened her mouth.
"Hmm…."
If it were going to be just the six of them, honestly, she would have said no even if it meant her friends needling her about it. But this time several other girls were joining too, so surely it would be fine. After her deliberation, Somi nodded slowly.
"All right."
The corners of Hwi-young's eyes curved.
Shraaak!
The heroine on the screen swung her greatsword, and crimson blood sprayed across the wall from the severed edge.
"Ugh."
At the stomach-turning, gratuitous violence, Somi squeezed her eyes shut. Of all things, the movie had to be this gory. Normally she'd have watched without blinking, but for some reason it left her uneasy. If nothing else, one thing was certain: this could not possibly be good for the baby.
I'm sorry.
Somi gently stroked her palm down her still-flat belly. Then she picked up the backpack she'd set on the floor and laid it on her thighs like a makeshift screen. Even just that much made her feel a little less uncomfortable.
From there, the gore kept coming — stabbing, slicing, carving, scene after scene. When the grotesque sound effect of a bone saw grinding through bone rang out, Somi finally turned her head away entirely. And then, her gaze slid slyly toward the back of the theater.
Among the sparsely scattered empty seats, she caught sight of Hwi-young sitting alone in the very last row. With a black cap pulled low over his eyes, he leaned his upper body against the back of the empty seat in front of him, looking straight at her.
The moment she saw him, the heart she'd barely calmed began to ripple again. It was an endless cycle — wanting to lean without a shred of doubt on the kindness he offered, then reining herself in, telling herself she mustn't.
And still, she kept wanting to believe. Because now he was no longer the Kwon Hwi-young she could only watch from afar.
Just then, the bright light spreading from the screen swept across Hwi-young's face. The instant their eyes met, he grinned and mouthed something at her.
Are you okay?
Somi only stared back at him wordlessly, at the worry written across his face. When she gave no reaction, his expression darkened for a moment. He raised a thumb, pointed toward the exit behind her, and mouthed again,
Want to leave?
That was going too far, when she'd come with her friends. Somi gave her friends one quick sweep of the eyes, then gave Hwi-young a small, careful shake of her head. He mimed a deep sigh, then seemed struck by a new thought and arched his brows.
A moment later, both his hands began moving busily. Like body language.
Wondering what on earth he was doing, Somi watched his gestures intently.
Hwi-young pointed a finger at the screen, then immediately covered his mouth with a clenched fist and shook his whole body in an exaggerated shiver.
If something scary comes on….
Then he raised his hands to cover his eyes.
Cover your eyes.
The moment those short little gestures clicked into place, Somi finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
That's right.
She shouldn't overcomplicate things.
Maybe everything really would turn out fine. If she let this very moment slip away out of fear of getting hurt, she might only regret it more someday.